Sahara Movie Review: By Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com

Sahara is a dumb, marginally entertaining action movie and the best compliment I can pay it is that, unlike National Treasure and Flight of the Phoenix, it appears to at least “know” that it’s dumb. In other words, it doesn’t pretend to be intellectual and it never tries to draw it’s characters too deeply. Sahara simply takes three fairly likable performers and puts them in one insane cliffhanger after another.

In this obvious ode to Indiana Jones, Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn play two soldier of fortune types who team with a crusading doctor (Penelope Cruz) to find a treasure and stop a mysterious plague somewhere in the heart of Africa . Of course all sorts of outlandish adventures ensue - placing our heroes through the ringer time and time again.

McConaughey’s heroic Dirk Pitt (a character who also appeared in 1980’s Raise the Titanic) was created by novelist Clive Cussler. Allegedly, the author has fought hard to keep several screenplays based on his stories from making the leap to the big screen, and reportedly, he’s taken Paramount to court after seeing this adaptation. Having seen the movie, I’m now interested in reading the book upon which this tale is based - if for no other reason than to see if the writer has a right to be pissed. I’m guessing he doesn’t.

As movies go, Sahara is a fairly good time. It’s big, loud and over the top and it’s fueled by an attractive cast.

Matthew McConaughey is definitely more Johnny Utah than Indiana Jones here. Rather than going for rugged action hero, he settles for surfer dude swagger, and he appears to be enjoying himself so much that it’s hard not to be entertained by him. Steve Zahn pretty much does the "Steve Zahn" thing - he spends most of the picture spouting one liners and providing Sahara with it’s buckets of comic relief. Penolope Cruz is more or less on screen as an ornament and love interest. We even catch a glimpse of her running around in a bikini which should make most of the men in the audience happy.

Sahara was directed by first timer Breck Eisner (son of the infamous Michael) and while there isn’t anything particularly dynamic about his technique, I applaud him for allowing the audience to see the action sequences. No intrusive music video style editing here. He takes a straight forward approach, and I certainly prefer this to the dizzying style in movies like Man on Fire.

Sahara won’t win any Oscars, and it certainly won’t linger in your subconscious after you’ve left the theater, but as cinematic fast food goes, you could do much worse.

Grade: C+

Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com